Comme Chez Soi forced to close by condo construction next door

Jesse Feith, THE GAZETTE07.21.2014

Stéphane François sits with construction equipment in front of his restaurant, Comme Chez Soi restaurant, on St Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, Thursday, July 10, 2014. He blames city construction for keeping customers away and has turned to Kickstarter to try raise thousands of dollars to pay hydro and other bills to keep his business going.

In the front window of Comme Chez Soi on St-Laurent Blvd., two signs can be read: one a congratulatory note for being voted one of the top-rated restaurants in the Mile-End, the other a handwritten apology from the owner, explaining how the condo construction next door has forced its sudden closing after seven years.

Though it’s only been closed for two weeks, Comme Chez Soi has been hidden behind the cranes, concrete mixers, portable toilets and construction signs that crowd the area in front of it for the last eight months.

As a restaurant it relied on its loyal customers but also those walking by: chalkboards announcing its signature bison burgers, lasagna, and macaroni and cheese often drawing in passersby.

For months after the construction started last November, owner and chef Stéphane François says he would show up in the morning and have to manoeuvre his way between the construction fences just to reach his eatery’s entrance. He eventually convinced workers to move the fence panels, but the sidewalk remained closed, and pedestrians continued to be redirected across the street.

Used to serving between 40 or 60 clients daily for lunch, François watched those numbers dwindle down to single digits.

He’s taking to Kickstarter now, looking to raise enough funds not to keep the restaurant open, but at least to pay some outstanding bills and not lose his equipment to creditors so he can turn the restaurant’s brand into a catering business that would continue to offer gluten and lactose-free products.

“Even under the best conditions the first few years of opening a restaurant is always a fight,” said François, sitting in the dim locale, the power having been cut by Hydro-Québec two weeks ago when he failed to pay a bill on time. “There’s seven years’ worth of early mornings and late nights’ work that went into this.”

François says he had a payment agreement with Hydro-Québec for July 14, but his service was cut unexpectedly a few days before, resulting in nearly $1,000 of meat, dairy products and pre-made meals going to waste in the restaurant’s fridges.

“It’s just been one thing after another,” said the France-born chef, who moved to Montreal 11 years ago knowing it would be a good fit for his cooking style.

Comme Chez Soi opened in 2007 on Fairmount Ave., before success and increasing rent had François move to the bigger location on St-Laurent Blvd. 3½ years ago, bringing many of his loyal clients with him.

Carmen Moral-Suarez was working nearby on Laurier St. when she first started eating at the Fairmount location.

“The food was always good, and there was this warm, welcoming, family-like atmosphere about the place,” she said.

At first she was a little worried that the new location would change the restaurant, but she said the opposite happened. “Everything just clicked somehow, the new place was the perfect location.” she said. “I can’t believe this has happened.”

The nearly 20,000-square-foot development next door is expected to have commercial spaces on the first floor and 17 condo spaces on the three other levels.

When construction first started, François thought the noise would be the worst problem — his brick walls weren’t thick enough to keep it at bay, but the constant clamour would end up being only one of his worries.

The mechanical diggers and jackhammers being used to dig an underground parking lot next door started shaking the restaurant’s foundation each day, the vibrations rattling the antique decor inside and forcing François to sweep up brick residue that continuously fell from his walls.

The seats next to his storefront windows — once the most coveted in the restaurant — were now always empty, the windows closed to stop the dust and debris from the construction blowing in with every gust.

Robert Bohbot, the co-developer of the new site, said workers have been as amenable as possible throughout the construction. “I’m very sympathetic to his situation, but at the same time I don’t feel responsible for his business not succeeding,” he added.

“It’s a nightmare that’s always in the back of your mind as a small-business owner around here,” said De Gaulle Hélou, pastry chef and owner of Patisserie Chez de Gaulle, a few minutes away on St-Viateur St. “You just hope it doesn’t happen to you next.”

Hélou called construction in the area a “business killer” that slowly chokes out any business it touches. “If it happened here we’d end up in the exact same situation,” he said.

He said businesses in the area rely on people’s habits, and once construction of any kind takes away access to a local shop, even the most loyal of customers will go to the easier option.

Martin Belzile, the Plateau Mont-Royal’s economic development commissioner, said the borough’s population density is what makes construction such a problem, one site affecting more businesses than in less dense areas.

“Since it’s a private lot, there isn’t much the borough can do, other than try to lessen the impact as much as possible,” he said of Comme Chez Soi’s situation.

Belzile said the borough could only interfere once the construction touched public property, and said it was proactive in doing so, asking the construction company to install scaffolding that would allow people to restart using the section of the sidewalk in front of Comme Chez Soi.

François, however, insists the city could have done more, and especially acted quicker. “The city never took into consideration the problems my business was facing because of this,” the 45-year-old chef said.

“When a city inspector came here, all I was told about my business was that to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs.”

The scaffolding in question was installed three weeks ago, but for François, it was too little too late.

“Right now I’m just working on adrenalin, trying to salvage anything I can,” he said, pointing out different benches, tables and portraits in the restaurant he’s recently auctioned off to make money. “It hasn’t really hit me yet what I’ve lost.”

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